It means that more than one in ten hospitals in England now charge disabled drivers as they struggle to meet a predicted £2 billion shortfall in their budgets this year.

Labour angrily accused embattled Mr Hunt of forcing the disabled to pay the price for the Government’s bungled management of the NHS .

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The figures can be revealed as thousands of doctors took to the streets to protest on Saturday over changes to their contracts that will see their pay slashed.

The alarming trend was revealed in data about 1,251 hospital sites collated by the Health and Social Care Information Centre – the national provider of information on the NHS.

Condemning the charges, campaigners pointed out disabled drivers and disabled people visiting hospitals often had little alternative but to drive because they might not be able to use public transport.

They also warned that disabled patients were likely to spend longer in hospital, leaving them facing higher parking fees than other visitors.

In August 2014, Jeremy Hunt criticised the parking charges as a “stealth tax on the vulnerable” and issued guidance that he claimed would cut the cost of parking for some visitors including the disabled.

Ahead of the 2010 general election, the then Labour government promised to scrap car parking charges – an idea ditched by David Cameron after the election.

Labour’s Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders accused the PM and Jeremy Hunt of hitting the disabled to help meet a huge shortfall in hospital budgets.

Mr Madders said: “Jeremy Hunt promised to tackle these unfair charges, but as ever with the Tories you can’t trust a word they say on the NHS.

“Disabled people often have no choice but to drive to hospital, and it’s wrong to target them with parking fees.

“The truth is hospitals are being forced to introduce or increase parking charges because they are desperately short of cash.

“This Government has caused a financial crisis in the NHS, and disabled people are paying the price.”

Unfair: Justin Madders says that 'disabled people are paying the price' for Tory policy (Image: Getty)

Last week, it emerged that 112 NHS trusts had increased hospital car parking charges for all visitors.

According to official NHS guidance, hospitals should make sure that car park users can park “as safely, conveniently and economically as possible”.

The guidance also states that charges should be “reasonable for the area” and there should be concession including “free or reduced charges or caps” for groups including the disabled and visitors with seriously ill relatives.